This invention relates generally to packages, i.e., cartons or containers, for recordings ("records") such as cassette tapes or disks, particularly recordings of programmatic materials such as audio, video, computer software, etc. In a more particular sense, the invention relates to packages of the aforementioned nature which are particularly intended for disk-type recordings, especially those of the type currently known as "compact disks" ("CDs"), or CD-ROMs, DVDs, etc. From another perspective, the invention relates to the mounting and storing, for shipment, sale and consumer handling, of records of disk-like form having a mounting aperture in the center.
Co-pending patent application (Ser. No. 08/811,475, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,819,928), by the same inventor and assigned to the same owner as the present application, discloses background information and preferred embodiments of an improved package/container for recordings and records of the above-mentioned types, basically comprising a sleeve-like outer container and a record-holder which is slidably receivable within such sleeve-like outer container. The record is conveniently and reliably held in place upon the holder, and both are safely retained within the container during periods of non-use but readily accessible for use by sliding the record-holder out of the sleeve-like container and removing the record. One end of the record-holder is retained within the package, and thus remains connected to it as a unit, even when the holder is withdrawn for removing the record. This provides for more convenient handling, and the holder may be slid back into the container while the record is being used, the resulting unit being conveniently stored until use of the record is completed. At that time, the record may readily be returned to its previous mounted position upon or within the holder, and the latter slid back into the container for storage of the record and container together. Earlier examples of similar record containers are also shown in commonly owned prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,488,644 (Re. 32,296) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,599, both of which are incorporated herein by reference, along with U.S. Pat. No. 5,819,928 which issued from co-pending application Ser. No. 08/811,475, for further information and background.
Record-holders of the type noted above typically include a centralized hub on which the record is supported in place for storage in the sleeve-like outer container, and often include some easily operated releasable means for reliably securing the record in its position on such hub, so that the record will stay in its attached position on the record-holder when the latter is slid into and out of the outer container, and during the time it remains within the container. In many such cases, such retainers comprise some resiliently yieldable structure atop the hub which fits into and through the central aperture in the disk, with some type of resiliently yieldable member that will lie over the top side of the disk and secure it in place atop the hub. To achieve maximum efficiency and economy, such structures are usually molded integrally with the record-holder, as part of the hub structure, and a typical such retainer structure simply comprises a somewhat undercut or mushroom-shaped hollow cylindrical projection atop the center of the hub, which is radially slotted in numerous places to provide a plurality of circumferentially arranged projections which are yieldable as a result of their size and deflectability, i.e., the elasticity of the relatively thin polymeric material of which the record-holder is formed. At least several such retainer configurations are known in the art, each having a specifically different design and shape but serving the same basic purpose and for the most part operating in a similar manner. Typically, the different record manufacturers have their own preferences regarding these retainer configurations, and since the record-holders are usually an integral one-piece structure made in the most economical way (for example, by vacuum-molding, from sheet material, or by injection molding), the result is that each such different preference in record retainer structure requires that an entirely different record-holder or slide tray must be manufactured and separately inventoried, etc., one for each different record manufacturer. This is an inefficient as well as inconvenient procedure, but it is nonetheless the prevailing situation in actuality.